On 12 Apr 01 (see above) Malcolm Douglas said "Hector MacNeil wrote a set of words [in 1895] but they were an expansion of a song already well-known in Orkney tradition"

In his 1947 book "Pirate Laureate" William Bonner said that Anne Gilchrist, a scholar of English folk song, traced the tune back to Germany Thomas, an old Scottish ballad that goes "My Luve's in Germanie, send him hame send him hame"

By "old" Bonner meant before the Seventeenth century

Does anybody know where I can find the more ancient words?